I am going out into the streets of Washington D.C.! Growing up in Lisbon, Portugal, and being a part of my parents' work with immigrants, the homeless, and Roma people, I have always been aware of the marginalized and needy around me. Every day in the month of February, I will be posting a story of an individual experiencing homelessness.
It is impossible to completely know a person through one encounter, and a person's story takes a lifetime to share and understand. But I've always been drawn to the ability of photography to capture a moment, and the beauty of writing that seeks to preserve the moments that make up our lives.
As I photograph throughout the month of February, I have amazing friends who will be working with me to write some of the posts. I am delighted to introduce you to them:
Jaime Colman is a Conference Associate at National Alliance to End Homelessness. She graduated from Houghton College with honors in Intercultural Studies, and completed a 90 page thesis entitled "The Opportunities and Challenges for Persons with a Disability in Kenya" that explores the social experience of disability in Kenyan context. She has worked for World Vision USA, and Vinya wa Aka, a women's empowerment group from the Eastern part of Kenya.
Heather Hill is the Assistant Manager of donor acquisition & digital fundraising at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She is a graduate of Houghton College, and Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is the Human Rights Co-Chair of the United Nations Association of the National Capitol Area, and you can find her performance reviews on MD Theatre Guide.
Charmaine Runes is a Research Assistant at the Urban Institute. She graduated with honors in Economics, at Macalester College, with a senior honors thesis titled: "Making connections: how do migrants' local social networks influence their employment outcomes?". She has worked at Alliance Housing Inc and the Jeremiah Project in St. Paul, MN.
James Ellis III - A pastor and writer in Washington, DC, Rev. Ellis is a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University, and the University of Maryland.
"I thought that by now I might be a superhero, maybe Mr. Incredible or a sidekick to Wonder Woman, but let's just call that a dream deferred. Professionally, I shepherd two-legged sheep. Though I can probably baptize, catechize, and sermonize with the best of them, my long-standing joy is writing. As an introvert especially, I can go to town lost in a world of literature. There is a Negro spiritual that confers, "All of God's children got shoes." To me, Heaven, as a concrete, eternal resting place for those who surrender to Jesus, is real, yet what we experience "down here" involves an assortment of twists and turns, some self-inflicted and others whose occurrence we will never quite understand. This project embraces narrative power and the value of people, as we are all equally created in God's image. Rich, poor, chubby, extra slim, vegetarian, or meat connoisseur; we all have shoes, yes, but we also have stories that are worth sharing."